Landy / China Wedding Dresses - Help and reviews please??!!!

i bought mine from ebay and im thrilled by it just be sure to read the customer reviews before hand

Hi!

Really interesting thread/debate. I've only just started looking and am already feeling that £800-£1500 is a LOT to spend on a dress! I saw a beautiful Maggie one the other day but it was £1500!!! The lady in the shop said to me....if you can't afford it don't try it on....don't want to fall in love with something I can't afford. I am lucky that my Dad has offered to pay for my dress, as his contribution to the wedding. Even so, I do not want to take advantage and spend his money, if it were my own I'm not sure I could justify £1,500!!

So thank you for mentioning the sites....to clarify...the sites are Landy and yourbridalwear.com....anymore recomendations ladies? Particulary for Maggie dresses!!

Steelgoddess:

Moi! Got mine from yourbridalwear.com! Very happy camper and got lots of compliments on my dress too so thats a bonus!

 

 

SG, your dress is beautiful! Have you got a link to it please on youbridalwear.com please?

Hi, I've just had a look on yourbridalwear Wow, the dresses are gorgeous and there are hundreds of them!!!

Steelgoddess did you manage to choose??!!

Not ruling out Landy either...the girls with the Landy dresses look beautiful too!!!

Emma keep me posted about what you decide and I'll do the same. xx

I'm definitely going to look at getting a dress from one of these sites now. Thank you so much for starting this thread, I can't believe I may never have known about this!! x

tahdah:

As long as you're happy to blatently steal the ideas from real designers who have worked hard to create gorgeous bridal gowns and make a name for themselves in the industry, plus make people have to work in uncomfortable conditions and for very little money to get your 'cheap imitation' dress then go for it.

 

If not save up and love the REAL thing!!

 

 

 

At the end of the day everyone has a different budget.  I myself understand what you are saying tahdah, and have spent £1100 on my Maggie Sottero that i love soooooooooooo much. And please don't think i paid that in a blink of an eye. Im having to pay it off in sections because we arent loaded however i felt that as it was my big day i would spend it.  But i think that maybe designers like this should also bring out a range of dresses that are lower priced for brides that havent got such a big budget.

But to say that people dont care about chinese workers etc.  is a bit ridiculous.  It's a very sad truth that this happens, but if people stopped buying the dresses they would have no jobs at all. < Im under no illusions that it isn't wrong that this is going on.  But it is and thats just how people earn their living in China. Its no the Uk over there its China and things are different!

But back to the dresses, just look how gorgeous all the photos look, if no one had said anything you wouldn't even know where it was from.

Gorgeous girlies, just gorgeous!

Katie

x

I'm trying more dresses on on Saturday but will defo be checking them out online/Landy when I get back! 

Luckily our Best Man's Mum is a seamstress so she can look after my alterations :-)

The cheaper the better for me!

x

There's no point saying "awww, but think about the poor designers, they worked long and hard to design these dresses and people are just stealing their idea's and making copies". The designers have money rolling out of their backsides, I mean, my MOH's Alfred Angelo dress cost £188. For one dress. They get plenty of money, and I don't see any harm with buying a replica dress from China. They are never absolutely identical anyway from what I've heard. I didn't buy one, I paid £500 for my dress from a local Bridal store, and that broke the budget as it was. And I'm not completely happy with the dress anyway. But if I knew about these shops in China back then, I would've probably bought a dress from there, and possibly been a bit happier with it, with a lesser price tag also. As a past poster said, the Chinese workers are used to working in those conditions, that is China's way of life. If their dress business went bust, they would have no job. The same as in this Country, what's better, being paid minimum wage and working your butt off to get it and being able to live on it, or being out of work and struggling on jobseekers (which I don't think they even get over there)? Theirs nothing wrong with buying a replica dress from China, and regardless of whether it has an expensive designers tag on or not, it is still a REAL dress, that makes a bride feel like a bride and look like a bride on her day.

i tried on lots of dresses in the shops to decide what suited me and then contacted yourbridal wear, my was the maggie sottero "Claudette" copy...

NOTE: It WAS very long and i was lucky enough to have a Mum who can sew and managed to take it up for me, I also wore the sash differently to how it was supposed to be worn, apart from that it was a lush dress and Im happy with the decision I made.

Im not paying anything off, and happy to enter married life with ANY debt from our wedding :)

I'd also like to poiint out that copy or bridal shop some of the dresses are STILL made it China, so please don't be under the illusion that just because they are not copies they are not made in china, because they are

x

veeery interesting thread ladies!!

if i can just throw in my tuppenceworth, i think at the end of the day it comes down to your priorities and what you want for your day. For some girls the fairytale dress is a major part of the entire wedding and the shop visits, trying on etc is all a part of that experience. For some lucky girls price isnt a deciding factor, and some girls are willing to scrimp and save as its so important to them to own 'that' dress. For some, compromising on a dress, be it a designer copy or an off the rack high street number would perhaps make them feel less 'special' on their big day.

For me it wasnt so much about price, it was prioritising what was important to me. I wanted a nice dress but it was important for me not to start married life in debt, and so i wasnt willing to pay over the odds for a dress. I can use that money for a family holiday that we can all enjoy. I bought mine from lightinthebox and i have to say i was very pleasantly surprised with it. It was a perfect fit (made to measure) and is excellent quality. It was the same price i would have paid for an off the rack dress in debenhams or monsoon but is definately better value for money. I feel like a million dollars in it and knowing that i got such a bargain makes me even happier!!!

I also cant wait to TRASH it after the wedding in the fab TTD shoot i won in the hitched raffle, and i can really go for it without a single guilty moment!!!!!

I say each to their own, ultimately its about what makes YOU happy, how YOU feel in your dress and while i agree to a certain extent about the chinese workers, unfortunately it is the case that SOME (not all) of the designer dresses are made in the same places.....

   I am glad that all your dresses look amazing & wish I had joined a forum before I ordered from a different Chinese manufacturer- HeleneBridal.  Although the feedback about delivery times etc was prompt, the dress was dreadful.  They had used Maggie Sottero photos on their website & the dress was far from being wearable, despite have a seamstress take my measurments.  Even when I tried my dream dress on in a bridal shop, they admitted that most of their gowns were made in China.

    The gown had a huge seam acoss the middle which isnt in the original, a zip at the base, shoulder straps 2inches too long, hem 2 inches off the ground, 3 layers of tuille under the skirt literally making it stick out 6inches extra around my hips & was made in the most awful, scratchy polyester. Even just trying it on, I was dripping in sweat!  I wasnt expecting it be be perfect, but thought with alterations, I could at least wear it.  Unfortunately, even a fairy god mother couldnt make this thing wearable.

  If you have found a chinese manufacturer that others have recommended, I'd go for it. As long as you can afford to loose the money you spend if it turns out like mine did.  I now have metres of polyester & tuille to one day make kids dress-ups with!

I don't think the 'copy' dresses are nearly as nice as the 'real' ones. I've seen the pictures of the model wearing the 'real' dress and then brides wearing them and in my opinion they aren't the same and that for me wouldn't be good enough. Some are better than others depending on how much detail there is.

I fell in love with my dress for a reason and if I had ordered it to save money and it had been different then I would have been hugely disappointed.

The 'real' dresses cost what they do for a reason and the 'fake' dresses cost what they do for a reason so it's all about weighing up all the possible positive and negatives.

Some really interesting views on here and some lovely lovely dresses.

My dress is a Justin Alexander and I got it for £200 as it's two seasons old. I would much prefer to do that myself than order without the personal contact etc if you get me,

I do think it depends what your priorities are. I wanted a cheap dress as I couldn't justify spending thousands on a dress - I'd rather spend it on a TOG or rings, something you take away from the day.

If you want a cheap dress sometimes the sale rails are not to be overlooked, there are some real bargains. Personally I love having a dress that is seasons old.....means I don't have to worry about anyone else having it! I just wanted what I loved rather than designer or season etc.

PurrfectGems:

I don't think the 'copy' dresses are nearly as nice as the 'real' ones. I've seen the pictures of the model wearing the 'real' dress and then brides wearing them

I don't really think it's fair to compare a brides picture to the models pictures, in my experience when trying on the dresses in bridal shops they never looked as good as they did in the pictures, which was one of the main reasons why I took a chance and ordered from china. If I hadn't liked my dress ok I would have lost £170, but all the dresses I tried on were at least £1000, and I wasn't prepared to pay this as after trying on many dresses I hadn't found the 'perfect one'.

My dress from china did need alterations, and I used the dressmaker from the local bridal shop where we also got H's suit from. I didn't tell her it was a copy dress, and she was shocked when I told her as she said the quality of the material and the stitching was excellent.

moonpig25:

PurrfectGems:

I don't think the 'copy' dresses are nearly as nice as the 'real' ones. I've seen the pictures of the model wearing the 'real' dress and then brides wearing them

 

I don't really think it's fair to compare a brides picture to the models pictures, in my experience when trying on the dresses in bridal shops they never looked as good as they did in the pictures, which was one of the main reasons why I took a chance and ordered from china. If I hadn't liked my dress ok I would have lost £170, but all the dresses I tried on were at least £1000, and I wasn't prepared to pay this as after trying on many dresses I hadn't found the 'perfect one'.

 

My dress from china did need alterations, and I used the dressmaker from the local bridal shop where we also got H's suit from. I didn't tell her it was a copy dress, and she was shocked when I told her as she said the quality of the material and the stitching was excellent.

 

 

 

It's just my opinion. I know the dresses look different from models to real life brides but I actually think the total oppositve of yourself Moonpig and that has been shown on here time and time again by the model versus real life hitchers flashing and everyone saying how hitchers look much better than the models but I'm not talking just about the look of the dress as in my opinion some can be totally different in terms of the beading, cut, fullness etc etc. I am not slagging anyone for buying a cheaper dress, I couldn't care less, but I am just giving my opinion that I don't think they live up to expectations FOR ME. I've seen hitchers flash the 'real' dress and then the one they got and I don't like them but I'd never say that to anyone because it isn't any of my business.

This isn't directed at anyone in particular but it's amazing how on threads like this people only won't to hear the positive experiences. When I first joined Hitched there were a few terrible stories about brides getting cheaper dresses and being gutted they had spent their money on something which was from a horror movie and they didn't have any more money to spend. That is exactly why I said there are positive and negatives to a situation like this and some fake companies will produce much better quality gowns then others just like some expensive designers are better or worse than others.

The OP asked for honest opinions so why can't Tahdad and I give your own thoughts as well as the others sharing their opinions?